Poof!

So, there may (or may not) have been a certain grill lighting event last week, which may (or may not) have involved me setting the match to the burner, without letting the propane (from someone else's previous lighting attempt) dissipate.


POOF.

Look ma! No eyebrows!

Actually, I DO still have eyebrows (and eyelashes, AND bangs)--they are all just much shorter and thinner!

Fortunately, it blew my bangs upward, so the parts that are only 1/8 of an inch long, are under the parts that survived unscathed.

Even more fortunately, I only got 2 tiny (like sunburn level, no blistering even) burns on two fingers. I feel very blessed, since it could have been SO much worse!

New Life!

I was feeling pretty bummed when I wrote my last post. I cleaned out literally thousands of little bee corpses from both hives, to get them ready just in case I could find some new package bees (they only come in once a year, and my usual supplier had already sold out). I did finally find a new supplier--but they were sold out through 2015. sigh.

As I did my research I found out that 75% of Ohio hives froze to death this year. Hence--very short supply. I felt better when I realized there was nothing I could have done, even if I was a much more experienced bee-keeper.

And then--I got a call back from the supplier--they had had a cancellation from a major buyer (over 100 packages), and I was able to drive about an hour and a half to pick up my two packages (one for each hive) on Saturday. There were people there from other states, so I felt pretty good to have only a beautiful drive in the country (although, it took us considerably longer than 1.5 hours since we got lost and went in very large circles!). Both packages are now installed and getting used to their new homes. I am interested to compare the differences between the two styles of hives.

A "package" of bees is a rectangular wooden box with screen on the longest sides, that has about 10,000 workers,and a queen, along with a can of sugar syrup so they have food on their long journey--in this case about 2,500 miles!

After I removed the (almost empty) syrup cans, I took out the queen (in her separate, tiny little cage), and then, literally dumped the worker bees into my waiting hive! It seems a little freaky to casually dump living creatures, but the bees handle it well!

False Euphoria

My bees are all dead-- both hives. The activity I saw was just other bees robbing their honey stores.Sigh.

Just so you know--Carrot Seeds float in milk.

This scientific update brought to you by the inquiring mind of SmallDaughter. Sadly, carrot seeds floating on milk look disturbingly insect-like. They have now been strained out of the nearly full gallon of milk. Life here is never dull!

I am pretty excited about my garden---once is stops raining enough to plant! BigGirl got home from her quilt bootcamp with my aunties, and it is nice to have her back--it is amazing what a hole one person's absence makes!

Beekeeping Spring Update

Early last week, when it FINALLY stopped snowing(!!!) and warmed up above 50 degrees, I took the insulation off my beehive and was really bummed to find piles of dead bees. It was really traumatic, even though I knew their odds weren't good in the super cold.

This is a Langstroth Hive like Mine.

Two days later I picked up my new hive, from a friend who wanted to try beekeeping, but then ended up taking a new job clear across the country--so he said I could have his hive, which is a totally different type,which I have been excited to try. After consulting with experts last year, I found out the best way to move the hive was to:
1.Wait until spring, so they had eaten their honey stores, and the colony was at its smallest level, so the hive is lighter,
and
2.Wait until after dark so all the bees are inside sleeping, load it in the back of a truck, haul it to its new home (my backyard), and (still in the dark) unload it at it's new spot.
The ground had finally dried out enough to back the truck up, and the loading went very smoothly! YAY! I got the new hive set up around 10:45pm and dropped exhaustedly into bed. PERFECT TIMING! It started to rain during the night and didn't really stop all week.

This is a top bar hive like Dave's.

I really tried in the fall to make sure they had plenty of food, since I suspected that it would be a long, cold winter (HAH! Called that one!), but I knew the odds weren't very good for either hive. I have been pretty bummed since it appeared that neither hive survived the winter, but was too cold and rainy to do anything about it, so I just ignored it.

Today the sun came out, and I got to go out and check them and--

HALLELUJAH!

Both hives survived and have activity! Yay,YAY,YAY!! I am really happy that I gave them a lot of food, I think it may have made the difference!

In other news:
Saturday before last, SmallDaughter dropped my cake plate, and a piece of the broken glass cut the knuckle of her ring finger. So, we got to drive through the nasty, icy, sloppy snow (we ended up with 4 inches!), to the Emergency Room. The only reason for the ER visit was to get glued and splinted, because I knew she would keep breaking it open. I am grateful I was able to take BigGirl and her sweet friend Miss M, who kept pressure on the bleeding wound, and then kept her entertained and happy (she was very bored in the ER, and kept signing "all done")!

The cake plate incident distracted me from cleaning up the "bottle of black RIT dye all over the bathroom" incident. It looked like a troop of orcs were slaughtered in there!

The boys are all planning and plotting for a multi-week campout (consisting of most of the summer) in the woods behind the extra boy's grandma's house. With Machetes. And fire. I am...resigned. But doing a happy, hopeful, honey inspired dance!


--

Some long awaited pictures!

I have been to busy to post--finally here is some proof!
Here is my lovely cousin Miss B as Maria in "The Sound of Music" in the wedding dress I made/remade for her. She was truly spectacular, and I was not the only person to notice that she was by far the best actress in the production!

And, here is a truly terrible picture of the little Belly Dancer costume for Miss K's niece's birthday.

I also hemmed a really beautiful bridesmaid dress, but I don't have any pictures of that.
I am still working on the Prom dresses. I promise I will post pictures.


Eventually.

Better Late than Never, right?

So, I have had a request to restart my blog.
One of my favorite bloggers just finished up a "blog challenge", and I thought I would give it a try.
However-I just reviewed my calendar, and--the next couple of weeks look pretty crazy--even crazier than usual. Some of the crazy includes:
*Making a wedding dress (1/2 done--for my sweet cousin, Miss B, who is playing Maria in "The Sound of Music")
*Altering an existing princess dress for Miss C, who is the queen in her school play
*Making a prom dress (also for Miss C)
*Teaching early morning seminary--and prepping for the Quad Stake Seminary Activity and dance next Saturday)
*Planning for Girl's Camp (I just got called to be the leader)
*Helping with the Young Women's Chili Cook-off fundraiser
*Preparing my Gospel Doctrine lesson
*Visiting with my dear Aunt S, who just flew in from California,
and
(Yay oh YAY!) STARTING SMALLDAUGHTER'S RIDING THERAPY CLASSES--she has missed her horsies ALL winter long!

Just a little explanation of why the blog challenge may have to wait!